A roundup of notable gifts compiled by The Chronicle:
Columbia University
Former Merck & Company chairman Roy Vagelos and his wife, Diana, gave $250 million for the College of Physicians and Surgeons, and they are directing more than half of their gift to endow scholarships to help to eliminate student-loan debt for cash-strapped medical students.
Of the total, $150 million will endow scholarships and $100 million will back medicine programs and basic science research.
Dr. Vagelos is a physician who worked for the pharmaceuticals company for nearly two decades. He graduated from the college in 1954, and Ms. Vagelos graduated from Barnard, Columbia’s partner institution, in 1955. The couple met on Columbia’s campus in 1951 and have been donors there for more than five decades.
University of Cambridge
Dagmar Dolby and her family gave more than $114.1 million through the Ray and Dagmar Dolby Family Fund for the renovation of Cavendish Laboratory, which is a center for physics research, and for the new Ray Dolby Research Group, which will be a part of Cavendish.
Ms. Dolby is the widow of sound pioneer Ray Dolby, who died in 2013. Mr. Dolby attended Cambridge as a Marshall Scholar in 1957. He earned a Ph.D. there in 1961.
He went on to found Dolby Laboratories and invented the Dolby Sound System, an analogue audio-encoding system that improved the quality of recorded sound. His estate gave the university $56.2 million in 2015.
University of Washington Medicine
Susan Brotman and her late husband Jeffrey Brotman, and Pam and Dan Baty together donated $50 million to create the Brotman Baty Institute for Precision Medicine, a joint effort among UW Medicine, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and Seattle Children’s Hospital.
Precision medicine is a type of research and patient care that uses information from genetic or molecular profiling to optimize diagnoses, treatments, and therapies for individual patients. Each couple is giving $25 million toward the new institute, university officials said.
Mr. Brotman, who co-founded Costco, died in August. Mr. Baty founded Columbia Pacific Management, which invests in hospitals and assisted living centers. The two men met as children and remained lifelong friends.
University of Connecticut Foundation
Peter Werth pledged $22.5 million to establish and endow the Peter J. Werth Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.
Mr. Werth founded ChemWerth, a generic drug development and supply company, in 1982. He did not attend the university but has been a longtime supporter of its athletics programs.
Torrance Memorial Medical Center
Priscilla Hunt gave $22 million to renovate of the North Patient Tower with updated technologies, a new postpartum mother and baby unit, and pediatric and neonatal intensive-care Units. The money will also go toward the Hunt Cancer Treatment Center.
Ms. Hunt is president of Hunt Enterprises, a real-estate company founded by her late husband, Donald Hunt, who died in February.
Hunt family members have a long association with the medical center as patients. Two of the Hunts’ grandsons were born there, and Ms. Hunt’s sister received cancer treatments there.
University of San Diego
Donald and Ellie Knauss committed $20 million to back the final planning and construction of the new School of Business complex.
Mr. Knauss serves as chairman of the university’s Board of Trustees. He retired as chairman and chief executive of the Clorox Corporation in 2015. One of the couple’s four children graduated from the university in 2011.
Harvard Graduate School of Design
Ronald Druker gave $15 million to renovate and expand the 45-year-old Gund Hall, which houses the graduate school.
Mr. Druker is president of the Druker Company, a real estate development business founded by his grandfather.
Southern Methodist University
Nancy Hunt donated $15 million through her Nancy Ann Hunt Foundation to endow the Hunt Leadership Scholars Program, which she and her husband, Ray Hunt, started in 1993. They had previously given $50 million for the program.
Mr. Hunt is executive chairman of Hunt Consolidated, a holding company with interests in oil and gas exploration, production, and refining; real estate; ranching; and other areas. Mr. and Ms. Hunt both graduated from the university in 1965.
To learn about other big donations, see our database of gifts of $1 million or more, which is updated throughout the week.
Correction: A previous version of this article said that $50 million went to University of Wisconsin Medicine instead of University of Washington Medicine.
